Post navigation

Don’t touch my books!

At MindBodyGreen, Lisa Westmoreland has offered us 10 Ways To Declutter Your Home (And Life!)

She lost me at #4 where says that if you don’t read a book right away, get rid of it, if you have read it, get rid of it because yoiu won’t reread it…and spend your time with the one book you’re excited about right now.

“ONE” book? Block your ears while I scream.

Look, don’t get me wrong – clutter free is good if you can get it – but BOOKS AREN’T CLUTTER.

Books are life. Together, my husband and I have an estimated 5,000 plus. They are in the library, they are in the spare non-bedroom, they are in the living room piled on the coffee table, besides Deck’s chair, on the piano…Well, actually, there are books in every room of the house.Living in a “clutter free” home devoid of books? Well – shoot me now. I would rather you did that than make me give away every single book that might not meet “current needs”.

Yes, some of them I read years ago and never re-read – but I look at them and they bring back a moment in which they were a joy to me.

Yes, some of them I have bought and haven’t read YET – and so what? Who is to police the use of my time, and the timeline in which I read my books? Right now, each of my my unread books are a Schrodinger book – not yet read and/or beloved still brand new and in the wrapper with all the anticipation still to come… or possibly never to be read, in which case it serves its own purpose as a marker of my state of mind, my attitudes, my beliefs, the things I suround myself with.

Books are a world, they’re MY world, and while I just did give a box of books I had no further use for to the second-hand store, it was because those particular books were ready to leave this house, not because I was “decluttering”.

It would break my heart to get rid of books for no reason other than they “take up space”, or “gather dust”. it’s precious dust. it’s word-dust. It whispers to me even when the book is not open to my eyes..

WHO: Alma Alexander (me)WHEN: Thursday, March 19, 7 p,m.WHERE: University Book Store, U District, 4326 University Way NE, SeattleWHAT: Reading and book signing

“There are werewolf stories and there are high school stories. Then there’s Alma Alexander’s new YA fantasy series The Were Chronicles. Set in a world of changelings as diverse as the many different creatures they can turn into. Strict regulation, isolation, and discrimination keep Weres always one notch below the normals they share the world with. And when Jazz—a teenage Random whose form is not completely fixed every Turn—uncovers startling secrets about her sister’s death, what begins is a complex and gripping story about family, culture, race and rebellion that will stay with you long after you turn its last page. Join us for a reading and signing, Alexander will share her brave new work, and maybe even spill a few secrets about what we can look forward to next!”

~~~~~Quote of the day

“Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes